sdnworldfandomcom-20200214-history
Sidney Hank
Sidney Hank (born September 22, 1963) was the first president-CEO of the North Frequesuan Trust since its official formation on 4 July 2013 until his resignation on 4 July 2017. He was also President of San Dorado (2007 - 2013). Following a serious heart attack in May 2017 and his subsequent recovery Hank resigned the presidency and "retired". However he continues to hold a position as special advisor to the Syndicate of the NFT, a semi-official position comparable to that of former CSR leader Stanislav within the bureaucracy of the UCSR. Hank is not only one of the most influential men of Frequesue, he is also one of its richest: Sidney Hank is the largest minority shareholder in petrochemical giant Standard Oil, for which he worked in management positions and as CEO for almost fifteen years before going into politics, and he owns major stakes in several other large San Doradan companies and a myriad smaller businesses. He owns sixteen houses, mansions and apartments across the world, as well as a 160 meter long yacht named the 'Golden Heart' and three supersonic business jets. His net worth in 2016 was estimated by Warren Magazine to be some $19.7 billion, which would put him in the top five of the world's richest men. Sidney Hank is married to Daphne Sinclair, the owner of biomedical giant SiNtek, long-time colleague on the Board of Directors of San Dorado and his successor as that state's current president. Early life Sidney Hank was born Sidney Leon Hank in San Dorado City. His father, Leon James Hank, was a self-made oil baron who had sold his company to Standard Oil several years before Sidney was born in exchange for a sizeable sum of money and a high-level management position. His mother Chelsea Coltrane was CFO for Saxby, Strange & Coltrane, a financial service provider which would in 1998 be assimilated by Morgan Finance International, a company owned by Hank's future colleague on the Board of Directors of San Dorado and the Syndicate of the NFT, Iago Morgan. He was educated at President Clemens High School, a prestigious school in downtown San Dorado. In his freshman year he and two friends bought a slot machine which they installed in a corner shop at a highrail station. Within a year they owned eight machines in different locations. After graduating Hank first enrolled at the University of San Dorado and La Palma in 1983 where he received a B.S. in Economics. He then transferred to Farbanti Business School in Shroomania, where he received a M.S. in Economics in 1987. Career in business Hank was employed from 1987-1991 at Dale-Thompson & Co. in La Palma as an junior operations manager. He then joined Standard Oil in 1992, where he would continue to work for nearly fifteen years. He proved himself a highly capable manager and eventually rose to the position of Chief Operations Officer in 1999 and then Chief Executive Officer in 2002. As CEO of one of San Dorado's largest companies he had ample chance to get himself elected onto the Board of Directors, but chose against it, preferring instead to amass economic and political capital first before finally making a bid in 2007. Political career President of San Dorado Having cemented his position within San Dorado's corporate circles over his years at Standard Oil, and bought a significant number of San Doradan shares whilst he did so, Hank decided to make a bid for the presidency at the 2007. In a tightly run campaign the newcomer managed to dislodge sitting president Robert Blues by promising seats on the Executive Board to several prominent San Dorado megacorporations: Universal Motors, SiNtek, Morgan Finance International and Ralson Concerns Ltd. These corporations would form the backbone of his support over the course of the Hank presidency at the expense of what had been the reigning power in San Dorado for some time, the Blues megaconsortium. Sidney Hank's first years as president of San Dorado were marked by three notable occasions: the formation of the Frequesuan Treaty Organization, an initiative of Hank together with President Ahten of Indhopal, President Jeffrey of Coilerburg, Sultan Suleiman of Klavostan and King Jeffery I of the Vineyards; the Tristate War between Sabika, Omago and Coilerburg; and what the president would later call 'the biggest mistake of his career', the war between the People's Republic of South Frequesue and Westchester in which the FTO sided with what would later once again become known as Tian Jiao. "We should've let the ungrateful bastards rot" as Hank put it in a 2010 interview. During his tenure as president Sidney Hank abandoned the neutral stance that San Dorado had carefully maintained over the past decades to once again become actively involved in the affairs of the world, to the point of sending troops to the east of the CFR when the FTO decided to launch 'Operation Stabilizer'. A firm believer in internationalism the president's attitude toward the FTO rapidly soured however when the organization proved incapable of formulating a response to renewed imperialist interest in the continent by the CSR and Tian Xia. Worse, many of the FTO's member nations were unable to rise from the morass of political instability that had plagued the continent of Frequesue for so long. Coilerburg saw half a dozen coups and changes in leadership in but a few years, and in 2011 launched a war of aggression against the Republic of Sabika that actually saw San Dorado turn against its ally. Although the One Day War was a short but bloody affair that was brought to an end by yet another coup, it was at this stage that President Hank decided that the FTO had no real future. As he once put it: "Here was an organization that could've been the savior of Frequesue -- and became nothing but a paper tiger. What a waste." President of the NFT In december of 2012 the Coilerburger Vigilant ''class submarine CNS ''Warden ''crashed into a Shroomanian submarine well inside Shroomanian territorial waters, sparking a major diplomatic incident between Coilerburg, the sub's owner and operator, and the Sovereignty of Shroomania. The Warden, armed with a not-insignificant number of nuclear cruise missiles, was impounded by the Shroomanian navy and Coilerburg came under intense international pressure to explain the presence of one of its strategic weapons platforms in the territorial waters of a sovereign nation half the world away. Within the nation of Coilerburg, whose population was already disillusioned with the rapid changes of government and military adventurism of the last decade, the incident caused the fall of then-president Oliver Farve and provided the impetus for the parliament to petition for Incorporation. At this point it was Sidney Hank who advocated that rather than turning Coilerburg into an economic appendage of San Dorado the two states should merge on a higher level with more potential to grow in the future, a decision that should prove prophetic. It was only months after the formation of the NFT that the next Frequesuan crisis began. The Commonwealth of the Vineyards in the south of the continent was rocked by a coup in which military hardliners sought to take power from the hands of the King. Although the president offered what little help he could to King Jeffrey I as far as he was concerned this was the final straw. After several rounds of negotiations with Shroomanian, Byzantine and finally UCSR diplomats Sidney Hank in a speech televised live across the world announced that the NFT would be leaving the FTO in order to join the Combined Alliance Treaty Organization, a move that would ultimately lead to the break-up of the Frequesuan Treaty Organization. Despite the union's change of allegiances Sidney Hank as president-CEO of the newly created NFT spent 2013 and 2014 organizing the budding Trust, and getting the delipidated and neglected infrastructure in Coilerburg up to speed and its economy integrated with that of San Dorado. It was during a routine inspection of the good works done by the NFT together with the Cascadian president Stephen Garrett that the presidential helicopter was shot down in what would become of the most televised events of 2014. A chaotic 24-hour chase across the badlands of western Coilerburg unfolded, wherein the two presidents were chased by ultranationalist militias as special forces from a number of nations raced to intervene. Shortly after the shootdown incident and the rescue of the two men and their bodyguards footage surfaced of Stephen Garrett and Sidney Hank improbably taking out a number of armored vehicles with rocket launchers, causing both to achieve a status as cult heroes on the Internet. Shortly after his return to San Dorado the president announced his engagement to former Board of Directors colleague Daphne Sinclair, at that time president of San Dorado. They married in 2016. The next big test for Sidney Hank wouldn't arrive until 2017 when pre-existing tensions between CATO and the MESS alliance escalated after an Old Dominion bomber was shot down by the NFN air defense frigate ''Black Pearl after it made an aggressive move in the direction of the frigate. The ensuing diplomatic back-and-forth caused the North Frequesuan Trust to nearly come to blows with the Old Dominion and its primary MESS ally, the Empire of Tian Xia, with which the NFT had a diplomatic spat not a year earlier over the provocative placement of a TXN base in the Northern Wilderness. It was during the resolution of this crisis that the president was struck by a nearly fatal heart attack which hospitalized him for weeks. Shortly after his recovery and subsequent release from the hospital did Sidney Hank announce his retirement from the presidency. He was succeeded by Willy Bank, who at the time already held the position of president ad interim. Special Consultant to the Syndicate Upon his retirement from the presidency Sidney Hank was offered and accepted a position as 'special consultant' to the Syndicate of the North Frequesuan Trust. As consultant his task is to advise the Syndicate and the office of the president on matters of internal as well as international politics, a position comparable to that former CSR president Stanislav has with the Supreme Soviet of the CSR. As an elder statesman the former president travels the world fostering goodwill and resolving crises whilst enjoying the relatively peaceful quiet of his semi-retirement. Popular perception As architect of the incorporation and prosperity of the north of Frequesue Sidney Hank enjoys unparallelled approval in most of the NFT. Despite a certain elusiveness his popularity rivals that of famous rockstars and actors, mainly due to the widespread perception of the former president as a cool-headed, hard-talking politician unwilling to bow to foreign pressure. He shares a personal friendship with the longest-sitting prime minister of Shroomania, Shroom the 777th, and has managed to build an unusual friendship wit president Shady of the UCSR, despite their vast ideological differences. Although widespread his popularity however is not universal. Although he is generally well-regarded on the rest of the Old Continent and in Cascadia he is consistently painted as an arch-imperialist and ruthless capitalist warlord by Japanistani propaganda, and Sidney Hank is generally regarded as an upstart colonial loud-mouth in Tian Xia and the Old Dominion. Notable possessions Houses *TY Gardner penthouse, 360 5th Street, San Dorado City *Snake River Ranch, central Sabika *No. 22 Portman Square, Farbanti, Shroomania Vehicles *Private yacht 'Golden Heart' *RA500 Thunderwave private supersonic jet (2) *C-21 White Lightning private supersonic jet Category:Sidney Hank Category:North Frequesuan Trust